Background

For a long time my researches stopped at my great great great great grandmother, Mary HEAD. I knew she married Andrew HOLT on the 22nd Oct 1772 at the parish church in Edgcott, Bucks. They had a son, Richard Head HOLT who farmed in Grendon Underwood, Bucks and whose granddaughter, Susan Rebecca HOLT married Richard HARPER. Their daughter Lily was my paternal grandmother.

However, the earlier history of Mary HEAD was a complete blank. I was faced with a fairly common surname and a very common forename but no obvious links to any HEADs in local parishes. Online research turned up a number of trees stating that she was born in Grendon Underwood with a date prefixed by the dreaded 'abt' a sure way of indicating dodgy data. No surprise then when this turned out to be totally wrong.

This is the story, as it unfolded, of my researches that eventually led to a tree dating back to the first year of parish registers in 1538.

The Story

Totally by chance, I came across an interesting entry in the Poll Book for the Berkshire election of 1812, this showed John HEAD of Grindon, Bucks voting on the basis of owning a freehold in the parish of Peasemore, Berks. Could this indicate a Berkshire source for my HEAD ancestors?

For a long time that was where I left it until a contact with a distant cousin gave me the contents of her mother's will (transcript). This named several siblings and in turn led to the marriage of Mary's sister in Thame, Oxon. Further investigation of the Thame parish registers unearthed the baptisms in Thame, between 1739 and 1752, of Mary and 5 siblings (matching those mentioned in their mother's will). Now her parents Richard and Mary could be identified and Richard's will was quickly found as it was proved at the PCC. I paid up and downloaded the will (transcript). The link to Peasemore was confirmed as he left property there to his son John. It was good to get back another generation but once again there was no way to tell where Richard came from. He was a yeoman farmer in North Weston a hamlet of Thame; apart from that all I was able to find was an newspaper advertisement for the sale of his goods and chattels by his executors.

The next piece of good fortune was the arrival online of the fruits of the Wiltshire Wills Project. To my great good fortune among the first wills to be placed online (for free) by this marvelous project was that of Richard HEAD of Leckhampstead, Berks, proved at Newbury in 1756 (download here). Here we find two properties in Peasemore being left to his son, another Richard, and he names the properties as Freelands and Belchers. Freelands was easy to find in Placenames of Berkshire by Margaret Gelling (a wonderful work). This told me that Freelands was on the 1830 OS map which is just as well as it is not on any modern maps. Naturally my suspicion is that the Richard receiving this legacy from his father is none other than my Richard HEAD of North Weston, Oxon.

In 1815 John HEAD of Grendon Underwood died and left a will, proven in the Archdeaconry Court of Buckinghamshire (transcript). In it he leaves property in Peasemore to his natural son Richard Head COLES.

A Peasemore freeholder called Richard HEAD votes in 1818 (Berks FHS Poll Book transcript) and in 1819 and 1821, Richard HEAD and his wife Ann of Freelands, Peasemore had daughters (Ann and Elizabeth resp.) baptised in St Barnabas, Peasemore. The obvious conclusion is that this Richard is a descendent of Richard of Leckhampstead who left Freelands in his will of 1756.

It is also very tempting to believe that this Richard HEAD is, in fact, Richard Head COLES using his father's surname rather than his mother's. By this date his parents had married.

All looked very neat until an 1838 valuation of Peasemore was examined. This clearly shows identifies the Freelands / Belchers property left by Richard HEAD in 1756. By 1838 it is owned by someone called GRIFFIN and let to a local farmer, Thomas CLARKE. The property consists of a farm cottage, barn etc. and three pieces of land named as Freelands, Freelands and Belchers. The spanner in the works comes in the villlage where Richard HEAD is shown as the owner of three cottages let to tenants. As these cottages alone constitute sufficient freeholding to qualify for the vote they could be the property passed down the Thame / Grendon Underwood line. However, the sale of the Freelands property (essentially a small farm of about 30 acres) does not mean that it was not part of John HEAD's legacy to his son. John's will certainly mentioned both cottages (plural) as well as 'closes pieces or parcels of arable and other land'. The cottages themselves would not be enough to qualify for this description, the three fields in the Freelands holding would fit in very nicely.

Freelands is in possession of HEADs from 1755 to 1787 as successive occupants act as parish overseers in what appears to be a rota system: Richard HEAD in 1755; Thomas HEAD in 1762 & 1768; Widow HEAD in 1774; Elizabeth HEAD (aka Widow?) in 1780 and 1787 (she dies in 1790 buried at Chieveley). Then in 1819 and 1821 Richard HEAD of Freelands has children baptised at St Barnabas, Peasemore. So a Richard HEAD occupied Freelands - but was it Richard Head COLES.

The another piece of the puzzle was found in the 1817 marriage of Richard HEAD-COLES of Peasemore to Elizabeth PAINTER in Brightwalton. Coupled with the baptisms in 1819 and 1821 of daughters Ann and Elizabeth to Richard and Elizabeth HEAD of Freelands this was, to me, fairly convincing evidence that a) Richard Head COLES moved to Peasemore as Richard HEAD and that b) he took possession of Freelands - the farm mentioned in his great grandfather's will in 1756.

Final confirmation came in Richard Head COLES' will, proved at the PCC in London in 1841(transcript). Not only does it mention the cottages in Peasemore - left to him by his father, John HEAD, but it also includes a deposition from Richard's solicitor to the effect that Richard HEAD was really Richard Head COLES.

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